10 Days Till Departure

In just 10 short days (to be filled with lots of friends, family, swimming, hiking, movies, marimba, eating, packing, repacking, and goodbyes), I leave for my year abroad! I'll be flying into France and staying for one night in Bayonne. From there, I'll make my way to St. Jean Pied De Port where I'll start my pilgrimage on El Camino de Santiago. I'll walk from there to Santiago de Compostela over the course of the next 5 weeks. I probably won't have great internet, so I won't blog much, but I'll post updates on Facebook when I can. After finishing El Camino, I'll hang out for a couple of days in Madrid (i.e. sleep, eat, shower, shop, and repeat) before going to Salamanca where I'll be studying abroad for Fall semester with IES Abroad. After a hopefully fabulous semester in Spain, I'll spend Christmas in Germany in the tiny village where my college friend Phil lives and perhaps take a trip up to Sweden afterwards. Then, I'll move to York, England where I'll be studying at the University of York for Spring semester (assuming they accept me to their program, which would be ideal). I'll hopefully take some trips around England (Bournemouth for sure) and around Europe (definitely Dublin, Ireland to see my friend Maggie!). Wish me luck! It's unlikely my laugh will travel across the Atlantic, so I'll do my best to update this blog with at least mildly interesting (or embarrassing) stories.